What Is Institutional Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

On March 25, Alabama police arrested nine black men who were charged with raping two white women. Their names were Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charlie Weems, Eugene Williams, and Andrew Wright. All nine of these men are said to have raped two women on a train going through Jackson County in northeastern Alabama. During their trial, they got the name the, “Scottsboro boys”. The men all denied ever seeing the two women on the train, but an all-white jury found them guilty and eight of the nine boys were sentenced to death. This is the court case To Kill a Mockingbird was based on. This court case showed everyone that the court as an institution was racist. There were many examples of racism

Institutional racism is defined as racism expressed by social or political groups. It is expressed in criminal justice, education, employment and healthcare to name a few. Throughout the story, Atticus is constantly being pulled down by the fact that an all-white jury will never believe a black man. He says, “There’s no way a jury will take Tom’s word over the Ewell’s”. He is saying that the jury is all white men and in the south in 1933 they will never choose to acquit Tom. He still tried his hardest on the case because he said, “I’ll never be able to hold my head up” (chapter 9). This means that Atticus had to take this case and defend Tom because of the moral issues that he would have if he didn’t. Another example of institutional racism is the way Mr. Gilmer treated Tom when he was on the stand. Mr. Gilmer kept calling Tom “Boy” (chapter 19), which was associated with slavery. One of the biggest examples of racism in the courts was the jury. The jury was all white men. According to Atticus, one of the many things wrong with the jury was that, “they took their resentment with them into the stand”. This means that all the jury members had a biased opinion of Tom and the whole case which made it very hard for people to believe Tom will be acquitted. The final example of the racism of the courts was when the jury was meeting. It was a good sign that they were out for a long time

The story is based in the 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama. The south was already known for having slaves and since the civil war just ended, slavery is still fresh in people’s brains. It’s not a foreign concept to them. When Atticus was talking about the trial he says, “We were licked 100 years before the case even started” (chapter 9). This means that due to the slavery and the racism in the south and how it’s still fresh in their minds, Tom will never win the trial. Another example would be from Mrs. Merriweather. She says, “at least we don’t pretend to have equal rights for blacks” (chapter 24). In this statement, she is referring to the North. She is saying that the North says they have equal rights for blacks but still discriminate against them. So, she is saying that at least we aren’t hypocrites like the